Newly installed Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. has the right to choose the people around him — just as New Yorkers have the right to wonder what those choices say about who has his ear.
Especially if that list includes certain ex-governors with a well-documented contempt for the law.
Vance has tapped Marlene Turner, a longtime confidante and former chief of staff to ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, as his $137,500-a-year special assistant — the chief gatekeeper to the DA’s staff and schedule.
Spitzer alums also run Vance’s communications and general counsel’s offices.
This is not to say that any of them aren’t entirely qualified — but a pattern does start to emerge.
Spitzer, who worked with Vance under former DA Robert Morgenthau, is close enough to Manhattan’s new top prosecutor that he even planned to throw a fund-raiser for Vance during last year’s campaign — before The Post got wind of the event.
Clearly, Vance needs to tread very carefully here.
The Manhattan DA is one of the most important law-enforcement officials in the country, with enormous power over both City Hall and Wall Street. The office — and its inhabitant — must be completely above reproach.
Being buddy-buddy with Client 9 does nothing but hurt in that regard.
Spitzer’s disregard for the law, after all, goes far beyond the solicitation of high-priced call girls: While governor, he used the state police as a political hit squad — then lied about it.
A more egregious abuse of power is hard to find.
The state, indeed, is still living with the consequences of his bad judgment — including a political culture even more given to paralysis and thievery than when he found it.
New Yorkers should be exceedingly wary of the prospect of Eliot Spitzer giving counsel at the Manhattan DA’s office.
Vance must labor to reassure them.